In The Beginning
A 'Quack' doctor has recently forced me into retirement! He informed me
that my plans to return to work where unrealistic due to the effects of
a stroke. I was faced with the question 'What now?' It was not possible
to return to my old passion of cycling as I only have good use of one
leg and arm, my right side being almost useless. My hand not being able
to grip anything not even a Fiver if it was shoved into it. A desperate
situation I think, for a one time "Bread Winner".

Sitting at home watching
wide screen Cricket, seeing fielders run for the ball, while not quite
being able to walk without a stick was definitely "doing my head
in" as they say in all the best movies. Reaching for the remote I
hoped for some comfort by selecting "Discovery Wings". Some
chap ex test pilot was giving a description of the Sea Harrier and its
Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) capability. He was describing the
Harrier as being jammed full with computer equipment to aid the pilot
in the hover.

Just What Is Going
On?
Now . I have come from the computing side of a west London
University. Hearing this chap, complete with handlebar moustache, create
a mystique with his very impressive b**s**t. The Public School accent
got me thinking just what goes on here with the jump jet.

Surfing the net for
"flying bedstead" only produced a poor quality b/w picture and
no text so I went on thinking what could be involved.

Eventually I found
a set of lecture papers, "The Harrier Development Story" - by
John Farley OBE AFC CE. at: www.harrier.org.uk/history/history_farley.htm.
These few pages where a triumph in Internet surfing for me! Actually getting
precisely what I was looking for and getting more than I needed, including
some useful detail concerning static pitch and yaw control.

These aircraft designers
and their gangs of test pilots must-half get loads of job satisfaction
and paid for it into the bargain! I think it was about here that it occurred
to me that I wanted to build a working model Harrier. Radio control (R/C)
of course! The comparative high one off cost - £120.00, paid, I
did the whole deal on line at www.shrewsburymodels.co.uk.
An excellent fast mail order web shop. Just flashed the plastic Visa Card.
Never mind the expense, essentials are hard to budget out. Know what I
mean? Ha. She who is regularly worshiped (Girl friend) never gets difficult
about where the money gets spent. (You lucky man! Ed)

Radio transmitter
(Tx) and receiver (Rx) Futaba Skysport 6YG Tx, four servos and a 6 channel
Rx, all mine. The last time I had contemplated buying all this gear was
as a 15-year-old schoolboy it had seemed so prohibitively expensive a
purchase at the time.

Patient & Careful
Planning
This would make a good start to a brill hobby and good post stroke therapy.
Clearly attempting a project such as this bearing in mind my handicap
was going to call for some patients and careful planning and would also
bring keenly needed food for the grey matter (Brain) and feel dead chuffed
about it if and when successfully finished and flown. "Victory rolls
"and all.

A timely shopping
trip found me hobbling towards the monthly mags (not the top shelf) but
the model flying stuff. Flicking through a few pages, quite difficult
if you have trouble standing for long without a stick and then having
to find some way of freeing your only usable hand from holding the stick,
usually by hanging the stick from my neck a la Charlie Chaplin, then at
last freeing my useful hand to use as a browsing tool. Sorry to go on
about this but you simply have to know it's no fun being suddenly handicapped
at the age of fifty-two. I'm not looking for sympathy you understand.
Understanding is all I need.

Reading the mags I
had purchased I found some articles about scale competitions, where points
are awarded for correctness to scale and in relation to complexity/difficulty
of construction. Judged against documentation provided by the competing
model designer and builder. The competitions where spread over 3 stages.
One stage static and a further two involved flying the model before the
eyes of the judges, performing a set of compulsory manoeuvres. Basically
flying and landing the plane as realistically as one would expect to see
from the full-size aircraft. I would pursue the necessary activities to
become at least a worthy participant in such an event with a 1:4 scale
vertical take off and landing (VTOL) Harrier.

Entering a competition
without ever having seen a set of the rules, was not really sticking with
my decision to carefully plan and be patient in the pursuit of this adventure.
I got no reply from an E-mail sent to the British Model Flying Association
(BMFA) asking for a copy of the SCALE competition rules. I think they
would prefer me to join an affiliated club which I would like to do but
do not have transport. I have sold my car as it is currently illegal for
me to drive thanks to the stroke. I have to pass a ministry driving assessment.

Sourcing Information
However, I studied articles in mags and on the "Flying Sites"
web site and purchasing a set of 5 videos called 'The Black Art of Building
Scale Models from Scratch' by Dave Plate, a past winner of scale competitions
but not a flyer. He uses an experienced model aircraft flyer, who he describes
as his test pilot.

From this source of
information, I had gleaned that a part of the documentation I had to submit
with my entry had to be photographs and colour information. I could submit
whole books it seemed. Also required was a complete 3 view SCALE drawing
of the actual aircraft type I had chosen to design, build and fly. I would
need a 3 view for sure, regardless of the rules if I were to build the
Harrier from scratch, i.e. entirely my own design drawn from bonified
documents such as 3vs and photograph.

Sourcing a good 3
view drawing was not all that easy. As every drawing I obtained had no
fuselage cross-section drawings. Bob Banker is widely recommended but
does not have any with fuselage cross sections of the Harrier.

One of the mags I
had bought had reviews of electric powered, all most ready to fly models
(ARTF).

Electric Power
Electric power was something I recall was just emerging, as I was about
to pack up my evolvement in aero modelling, around about 1963/4. Being
able to return to my boyhood hobby without the problem of smelling like
a diesel pump and having the reliability of an electric motor was more
incentive to push on in the aero-model direction. What I wanted was a
good powerful Electric ducted fan unit (EDF). I had seen internal combustion
(IC) model ducted fan units in a Ripmax sales catalogue and hoped I would
find someone selling electrically powered units.

Surfing the web again
I found Kress jets in the states at:www.kress-jets.com.
I ordered their most powerful (EDF) unit with a thrust of 31.2 oz rated
using 14 cells. Its external dimensions where small enough to enable me
to fit two power units side by side to my proposed Harrier.